AOL Still Makes $500 Million Profit From Dial-Up Connections

Quick show of hands, who here once used dial-up service through America Online back in the late 1990’s? Quite a few hands I bet. I can’t remember opening a magazine and not finding 10 free hours of Internet on an America Online disc back in my middle school days.

Turning the question on its head now, how many of you actually still use an AOL dial-up connection? I’d be kind of confident in guessing quite a few hands just shot down, but apparently some folks out there are still using a good old fashioned dial up modem to access the Internet.

Believe it or not, but AOL still makes more than enough money ($500 million a year) to cover all of its corporate costs and still manage to pull in that hefty profit on top. This is all thanks to its trusted old-fashioned Internet connection which doesn’t even allow users to talk on the phone when in use.

Despite a rapidly shrinking dial-up user base, AOL still manages to keep its numbers up by offering subscribers more and more value for the ridiculously cheap price they pay for the caveman days of slow Internet.

What do you think? Could AOL spin those $500 million figures and make a quick stint back in the world of relevancy?